USB Ports Suddenly Stopped Working

My USB ports suddenly stop working !! i have tried all the possibility's ... it doesn't even recognizes any devices and it doesn't list it in the device manager , Please help Laptop/ Brand HP/ model No HP 620

PS: i brought a new HP mouse and it worked for about 1 hour and then suddenly all ports are malfunctioning (USB optical Mouse)

Bullseye,
What did you try?
Did you reboot, for example?
It would at first appear that your new mouse (USB) was the tipping point.
Did you do anything else since installing your new mouse?
More Info needed here, but?
I assume it's under Warranty?
Bring it back, with your laptop, and have them get it to work.
If they give you a replacement., and it works, check your other USB ports (bring something with you, a Flash Drive)
If all is working, stay close to the shop, use for an hour or so, and if goes again, bring it right back;
Let them troubleshoot it for you.

I would also check for fluff in the USB port slots, sounds daft but stopped a few usb devices from working especially if you tend to keep a usb penstick in your pocket a lot I speak from experience. Could also be a power issue, so test with a usb device that has an external power supply.

I had power the led laser was emitting.
I got a error message as "device not recognized: when I plugged in any USB device.
disabled and uninstalled the USB controllers ,restarted it..but it didn't work.

I updated my BIOS to a new version and now the USB ports are working :)
I tried all what I can and @ last flashing the BIOS worked. it didn't take much time I got latest BIOS setup from the HP website and it took me 15 mins to update it.

Don't know what might be the reason but now all my ports are working :):)

@Debra,
Thanks for this tip; I am still using XP Pro in my BackUp station, and with more and more USB devices, this would be a handy tool to have. Even on Win7, perhaps?
@Lee (dark.an9el), Thank you as well.
Speaking about great minds thinking alike.

b> I updated my BIOS to a new version and now the USB ports are
b> working :)

Would suggest that BIOS corruption had occurred and whilst this is an
unusual fault I have seen it a few times. Hopefully you'll not find
this happening again and can put it down to a rare glitch. In theory
the BIOS shouldn't corrupt like this but theory and practice don't
agree at times <lol>

- Try a system restore to an earlier date. - Fail,
If You are sure, that Your last action, (software install...), cause that, o.k. give it a try...

- flashing BIOS is the Last thing I would've done, for USB Mouse !?....
In this case it helped, probably 'cause chipset drivers were updated?

I make a restore point before any action , just in case something went wrong while I am "God Save the Queen" My system settins/properties/... Or installing a new program.

I have a serious problem with my bro's HP Workstation connecting USB Acer C120 projector.
It worked fine for a month, suddenly it start switching resolution mode, on the end it wasn't recognized by W 7 anymore.

Solution: USBDeview 2.0 (Nirsoft)

Regards, Robert.

ps: sometimes I ask myself,... How those things even work with such a complexity?

Hank, thanks for that ellipses clarification. I also took it to mean that you were questioning it.
If it had displayed correctly, I wouldn't have needed Debra's input (except for the 64 bit part), but I did.
So, thank you both for clearing that up.
Marc

I haven't tried your equipment and softwares but I did use Windows xp w/sp3 and experienced the same result. I went online and downloaded drivers that supported the program. This may or may not fix yor problem, but worth the try. Thanks for asking a question I know something about.

A followup - had the opportunity (need) to use USBDView for the first time on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit last night ... I have a customer who had over 110 USB devices listed including cameras he has not owned for 2 years. The problem that pointed me to it was that his printing suddenly stopped working (has an HP D110) after he moved around his USB port connections (8 on his machine). I cleaned out the devices I knew would not be used again ... and the thumbdrives, etc. that would easily reload drivers (about 80 in total). I didn't need to remove the printer or external hard drive that is always connected. The printer started working without additional trouble-shooting.

Debra,
Loves his USB devices, huh? And 80 Flash Drives? It had never come up for me before, but is it true that Flash Drives load drivers automatically?
I've always been able to just use them and never gave any thought to that.
Thanks again for the tip on USBDView.
Marc

Flash drives load an identifier the first time they are used, and those that have special drivers are generally automatic. That's why the first time you use a drive on a machine it takes slightly longer than subsequent connections, Marc. It's easy to get accustomed to 'plug and play', isn't it?

dc> Flash drives load an identifier the first time they are used, and
dc> those that have special drivers are generally automatic.

Problem there is that every USB port on the system that the drive is
used on has to create its own identifier and over time this list gets
to be very large in the registry. This can lead to problems with a
particular drive no longer being recognized and the only way to clear
that is a manual deletion of the relevant entries for that drive.

Have seen the same thing happen with other USB devices and that's been
the only thing that fixed it.

Of course there are multiple entries for each identifier and it take a
long time to trawl through the registry and remove every one of them !

BTW - this really has no bearing on the original fault of all the USB
ports failing to work on anything at all. This was cured by the BIOS
update and points to BIOS corruption preventing the entire USB system
from being initialized on boot - a rare event but one that I've come
across a few times over the last 10 years of PC fixing.

Barry ... Agreed, that removing devices only works in some circumstances. BIOS updates, also, only work in some circumstances.

I have seen this almost exclusively on XP machines, at least 4 years old (or 4 years since the last load). Across my client base, though, I probably run into it about a dozen times a year.

One more note: At least 3/4 of the places I've seen it are places where there are media card slots in the PC or Printer that have a dedicated drive letter. This is observation only ... possibly interesting in the discussion but not a suggestion of causation.

Ditto - haven't seen it in Vista / Win7 to date so maybe they've
altered the API's around USB devices to accommodate the increase in
their use. After all, when WinXP first hit the streets the USB flash
drive wasn't around, nor printers with card reader slots <lol>

Hello Debra; Hello Barry,
You both may have hit on something here, I have no reports at all of any USB related problems of this sort since XP. Very true that when inter-connected technology is new, there are a lot of logistics to be straightened out. (It's a very complicated thing how these devices by many makers interact with your PC's hardware, and the OS) Didn't dark.an9el call it mind-boggling.
And, perhaps even XP SP3 is not an issue?
Marc